State of the Writer: February 2014

Cold! The writer is god damned cold and ready for this winter to end!

That said, January was a pretty damn good month. My new writing schedule is working out. If you’re here, you’ve probably noticed the uptick in blog posts, and I’ve enjoyed having a few days a week dedicated to short stories. One is making the rounds, another got written and is an editing pass away from going into circulation. Plus there was the sale in late December, more on that later in the week.

Plus, a few days ago I wrapped up the rough draft, extremely rough draft, of the generation ship novel I’ve been working on. It clocked in at just over 70,000 words, which is a little disappointing, but it also needs a lot of work. Nothing about its current length, or arrangement, or plot is untouchable. Because isn’t editing fun?

February will present a few challenges, including a night where we’re dropping the baby off with her grandparents and just getting out for a night. I don’t want to give myself that day off, but it means finding some earlier writing time than I might normally.

State of the Author’s Bees. They’re alive! The bees are alive! We lost one hive early in the winter, but the other is hanging in there. We had a warm day this weekend (well, warm for this winter) so my wife took a look in the hives. The dead hive apparently fell victim to a mouse invasion. Which is a shame, but it’s also nice to have a specific cause to point to. The other hive is alive and kicking. So we gave that hive all the uneaten stores of the dead hive, some tasty sugar syrup, and a patty of artificial pollen.

The queen should start laying new eggs soon. They’ve only got another month until they’re through the worst of it, but it looks like we’ll actually bring a hive through the winter. First success in four tries, but we’ll take it. It means there’s also a good chance of being able to harvest some honey this summer. Not a lot of honey, but some.

So. Forward and upward! This month the Great Hugo Read delves into alternate history with Phillip K. Dick’s classic novel The Man in the High Castle, and one of the books that inspired Dick, Bring the Jubilee. The novels are at the forefront of what are now two of the standard tropes of alternate history, exploring what would happen if the Axis or the Confederacy had won their respective wars.